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Saturday, 23 January 2016

Customised deck plates

Over the past few days I have glued the deck over the bunk flat. Access to storage below is granted through 2 8 inch deckplates each side of the centercase and 2 6 inch ones under the foredeck. I purchAsed Beckson branded deckplates as suggested by my friend Steve who has used them on Spartina for years now. They indeed look sturdy and very high quality. However I couldnt help modifying them as they looked too plasticky on the teak deck. I therefore decided to cut away the core of the lid with the help of Christophe and the work place's lathe. The core part is replaced by the deck's cutaway that is carefully routered off to match the diameter of the hole in the deckplate's lid.

Luckiky I managed a tight fit between the parts and a generous epoxy fillet from the inside of the lid ensures mechanical integrity and watertightness.
I will just have to figure out the best way to produce finger notches to help screw/unscrew the deckplate in position.